Outer Domain by Terence Thomas

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Synopsis

A new source of light has been discovered in the night sky and Captain Felix Jenner and a crew of scientists have boarded the USS - Mobius on a mission of discovery. Niles A Barstow, the Science Officer and a group of research personnel were chosen to identify and catalog the phenomenon.

Their first duty was to dock with The USS - Stockton, near the rings of Saturn. The purpose of the docking was to add new equipment that would cut the travel time significantly. Felix and his science officer Barstow were greeted by Paul Stockton, an old friend from the days at the academy. They reminisced briefly over coffee and then were taken to the bridge for a demonstration. As they sat looking at the view screen, Felix saw a small ship coming at them on a collision course. Noticing how Felix reacted, Paul quickly assured that the ship would not collide as it stopped dead. Paul then explained how ships were for some time capable of very quick stops…it was the effect of centrifugal force on crew members that was the problem. We have come up with an electronic buffer effect that makes gravitational forces far less consequential.

The urgency of the mission meant that after the coffee and demonstration, they were on their way. The new equipment would also allow them to maneuver through the asteroids just around the corner and with in a few days asteroids were all around them and traveling through was tricky but Felix, with his superior piloting skills, maneuvered them safely through the giant floating rock trail.

For weeks things we perfect and then a series of hull breaches started occurring. No loss of pressure left officer Barstow perplexed and started a number of procedures that were not exactly standard. This followed by visual problems and nightmares experienced by the crewmembers put pressure on the medical staff to come up with a solution. The line to sickbay was beginning to concern officer Barstow who learned that the cause of the problem was increased visual range sensitivity.

Strange things continued to happen and they noticed a yellowish powder covered the outside of the ship so they engaged the services of one of the maintenance robot Plato. The view screen on the bridge lit up with a huge billowy cloud, so bright you could hardly look at it. Felix asked Barstow how a cloud could maintain its billow continuity and Barstow told the captain that it could not and then something was seen moving out of the cloud. It was some kind of derelict ship just drifting away from the cloud.The captain gave orders to prepare a shuttle and asked Officer Barstow to join him on the launch bay. It did not take long for them to reach the ship and they found strange creatures encased in some kind of wax. They used the robot hands of the shuttlecraft to take one of the creatures. According to Barstow, The ship was some kind of warship and the creature, a warrior.

On the operating table, the creature was identified as an Isomorph. A creature that has much of its skeletal structure on the outside of it's body. The captain made the decision to abandon the mission but it was too late…they were discovered and had to make a hasty retreat. Only with the action of the brilliant crew did they have a chance of survival.